Looking for an easy and quick one-bowl meal recipe? Then let's make Hawaiian tofu poke bowls together! It’s vegan, nutritious, easy to put together and so addicting.
This Vegan Poke Bowl with tofu, lots of vegetables, and chipotle tahini sauce is a simple recipe. Add your preferred rice, you will have a satisfying and gorgeous-looking bowl for dinner and lunch!
We love eating one-bowl recipes during summer. Something like this poke bowl in which there is almost no cooking needed (except rice) and it's so easy to put together in no time.
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Tofu Poke bowls are
- a tasty, healthy plant-based dinner/lunch recipe that makes eating your vegetables taste incredible!
- perfect make-ahead meal
- whipped up in 30 minutes
- perfect crowd pleaser
- easily customizable.
What is Poke Bowl?
In Hawaiian, Poke means "to slice or cut". It refers to chunks of raw, marinated fish like tuna or salmon. It is served in a bowl on top of rice, vegetables, and flavorful dressing.
Poke is a Hawaiian-American food, but much of its flavor is influenced by Japanese cuisine
While traditional recipes call for salmon or tuna, we'll be using cubed organic firm tofu, which is marinated in sambal-soy sauce. It's healthy, filling, and tastes delicious!
Ingredients required
There are 4 components of this recipe -
1. Tofu poke
- Firm tofu - Use firm or extra firm tofu for this recipe
- Soy sauce - Use low sodium soy sauce. For the gluten-free version use tamari.
- Sambal - gives a little bit of spice kick. You can use any hot sauce instead of sambal.
- Rice vinegar - You can use regular vinegar too.
- Sesame oil - You can use any oil of your choice.
2. Spicy Chipotle Tahini sauce
Traditional poke bowls are served with salty shoyu sauce. However, I love to serve this vegan poke bowl with chipotle tahini sauce.
You must try this sauce. It adds richness and great flavor. This Sauce is the perfect topping for anything like tacos, salads, or bowls like this poke bowl. It’s zesty, smoky, and super creamy. So make extra and enjoy it in different recipes.
It is made with
- Tahini - It's a paste made of sesame seeds, typically used in Middle Eastern or Mediterranean dishes. Tahini is perfect for making creamy sauces. They are easily available in any store. You can easily substitute it with peanut butter, almond butter, or any nut butter.
- Chipotle peppers - canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. Use only peppers from the can, not the sauce.
- Maple syrup - You can use any sweetener here.
- Lemon juice - Lime juice also works fine.
- Extra virgin olive oil - Use good quality extra virgin olive oil.
- Fresh herbs - I have used mint and cilantro as herbs. You can use any fresh herbs like basil, thyme, rosemary, etc.
- Shallots - give a nice deep flavor. You can use green onions too instead of shallots.
- Garlic and salt.
3. Toppings | Vegetables
- Edamame - used frozen and thawed.
- Carrots, Radishes, cucumber, purple cabbage – gives beautiful color and crunch!
- Sesame seeds for crunch.
- Feel free to use any vegetable toppings of your choice.
4. Short grain cooked rice
I have used white sushi rice. But you can use white rice, brown rice, quinoa, or cauliflower rice! You can use your leftover rice too.
How to make this recipe? Step by step process
Step 1 Cook the grain
For the grain, I cooked sushi rice. You can check out my Instant pot Sushi rice post for the recipe. You can use cooked brown rice, basmati rice, black rice, or quinoa too.
Step - 2 Prepare and marinate tofu
While our rice is cooking, take out the tofu block from its package, drain all the water, and wrap the tofu in a clean kitchen towel or absorbent towel. Set something heavy on top - like a cast-iron skillet or glass bowl - to press out extra moisture for 5 minutes. You can use a tofu press too.
Unwrap tofu and cut into small cubes. Keep it aside.
Take soy sauce, sambal, rice vinegar, and sesame oil in a big mixing bowl. Whisk all ingredients well.
Now add tofu, gently toss to coat, cover the bowl, and let sit for 10 minutes.
Step - 3 Prepare vegetables
Thaw the edamame according to the package instruction, slice the radishes, shred the cabbage, and cut the carrots and cucumber into ribbons.
Step - 4 Prepare chipotle tahini sauce
Take all the sauce ingredients in a blender or food processer. Blend it well and make a smooth paste. Keep it aside.
Step - 5 Assemble - Make a vegan poke bowl
When all the components are prepared, divide the rice between 4 bowls. Arrange all the vegetables, tofu, edamame on the sides just shown in the below image.
Drizzle some sauce and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. The bowl is yours to enjoy!
There are many different ways to serve this Vegan Poke Bowl. You can leave out the rice for a lighter poke bowl. You can also toss in mango or pineapple cubes for some tropical flavors. Your bowl, your choice!
Notes, pro-tips and quick FAQs
Sauce – The consistency of tahini brands differs. So you may need a little more tahini or a little more water for the sauce to get to the right consistency. Store the sauce in the refrigerator in an airtight container in the fridge. Tahini tends to solidify when chilled so if it seems a little thick when you take it out of the fridge, let the sauce sit on your counter for a few minutes before serving. You can use the leftover sauce in tacos, sandwiches, wraps, or drizzle on sushi rolls.
Tofu – I kept the marinated tofu as is. You can also air fry or bake the tofu for this bowl for the crispy texture.
Toppings - feel free to add any toppings/vegetables of your choice. Customizing your bowl is one of the best parts of eating poke, so don't hesitate to add vegetables of your liking.
If you'd like this bowl to be entirely gluten-free, make sure you use a gluten-free soy sauce or switch it to tamari.
If you have leftover ingredients, store them separately in the fridge. Assemble your bowls again when you're ready.
There are so many different and fun ways to serve this Vegan Poke Bowl. You can leave out the rice for a lighter poke bowl, toss in mango or pineapple cubes for some tropical flavor.
This chipotle tahini sauce is the heart of this bowl. If you want to try other sauces, here are some of my favorites –
green goddess dressing,
avocado cilantro dressing
Mango sauce
Spicy roasted red pepper sauce
Poke bowls are great for meal prep. Just whip up the dressing and cook your rice and marinate the tofu ahead of time. You can also prep all of your produce in advance.
Store everything in separate containers, and then heat your rice before serving and assemble your bowls.
Leftovers do well in the refrigerator for up to 4 - 5 days. Just be sure to store the sauce separately.
More Tofu recipes
- Korean Braised Tofu (Dubu Jorim)
- Orange Tofu Broccoli
- Vegan Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice)
- Thai Peanut Curry
- Instant Pot Tofu Tikka Masala Vegan + Gluten-free
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Vegan Poke Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cup – Any variety of Cooked Rice i have used Sushi rice
- 14 oz. Firm tofu
- ¼ cup low sodium soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon – rice vinegar
- 1 tablespoon – Sambal oelek or any hot sauce
- 1 teaspoon – sesame oil
- ¼ cup Tahini
- 2 tablespoon – extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoon – lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon – maple syrup
- 1 chipotle pepper canned one – chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
- 3 small garlic cloves
- 1 tablespoon cilantro
- 1 tablespoon mint
- 1 small shallot or use 2 tablespoon green onion
- ½ teaspoon salt or to taste
- ¼ cup water
- 1 cup – cucumber cut in to ribbon (you can also use diced cucumbers)
- 1 cup carrots cut into ribbon (you can use diced carrots)
- ¾ cup raddish sliced
- 1 cup shredded purple cabbage
- ¾ cup edamame thawed
Method
- For the grain, I have used sushi rice. You can check out my Instant pot Sushi rice post for the recipe. You can use cooked brown rice, basmati rice, black rice, or quinoa too.
- While our rice is cooking, take out the tofu block from its package, drain all the water, and wrap the tofu in a clean kitchen towel or absorbent towel. Set something heavy on top - like a cast-iron skillet or glass bowl - to press out extra moisture for 5 minutes. You can use a tofu press too.
- Unwrap tofu and cut into small cubes. Keep it aside.
- Take soy sauce, sambal, rice vinegar, and sesame oil in a big mixing bowl. Whisk all ingredients well.
- Now add tofu, gently toss to coat, cover the bowl, and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Thaw the edamame according to the package instruction, slice the radishes, shred the cabbage, and cut the carrots and cucumber into ribbons.
- Take all the sauce ingredients in a blender or food processer. Blend it well and make a smooth sauce. Keep it aside.
- When all the components are prepared, divide the rice between 4 bowls. Arrange all the vegetables, tofu, edamame on the sides just shown in the below image.
- Drizzle some sauce and sprinkle sesame seeds on top. The bowl is yours to enjoy!
Nutrition
Notes
- Sauce - The consistency of tahini brands differs. So you may need a little more tahini or a little more water for the sauce to get to the right consistency. Store the sauce in the refrigerator in an airtight container in the fridge. Tahini tends to solidify when chilled so if it seems a little thick when you take it out of the fridge, let the sauce sit on your counter for a few minutes before serving. You can use the leftover sauce in tacos, sandwiches, wraps, or drizzle on sushi rolls.
- Tofu - I kept the marinated tofu as is. You can also air fry or bake the tofu for this bowl for the crispy texture.
- Toppings - feel free to add any toppings/vegetables of your choice. Customizing your bowl is one of the best parts of eating poke, so don't hesitate to add vegetables of your liking.
- If you'd like this bowl to be entirely gluten-free, make sure you use a gluten-free soy sauce or switch it to tamari.
- If you have leftover ingredients, store them separately in the fridge. Assemble your bowls again when you're ready.
- There are so many different and fun ways to serve this Vegan Poke Bowl. You can leave out the rice for a lighter poke bowl, toss in mango or pineapple cubes for some tropical Flavor.
- For ingredients substitution and faqs, check out the blog post above the recipe card.
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know We would love to hear your thoughts! Please leave your comments, ratings, and any ideas or changes you think could help us make our recipes even better. Thank you for your feedback!Warm regards,
Dhwani.
Loved the tahini sauce.
I cooked the tofu in the oven and then used all kinds of vegetables that were in the fridge, but the sauce made it special.
Thanks!
I will use this often
So glad to hear this. Thank you.